


Extensions of Mixology Certification/Introduction to Romantic Jealousy

by thisaliennerd



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Canon Autistic Character, Episode: s02e10 Mixology Certification, Established Relationship, Internalized Homophobia, Jealousy, M/M, Open Relationships, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Secret Relationship, Troy Barnes has adhd, abed fucks, abed nadir is kind of a slut, but it's mostly abed because yk, but subtly, but troy and abed are both sober, im so bad at tagging, its not a big deal theres just a little because its troy, smut incoming in next chapter so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-20
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-29 02:15:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30149205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisaliennerd/pseuds/thisaliennerd
Summary: It's Troy's 21st birthday, and Abed is spending it talking to another guy.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 3
Kudos: 38





	Extensions of Mixology Certification/Introduction to Romantic Jealousy

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place during and after s2e10 - Mixology Certification. This chapter is completely smut-free, they could honestly be two separate stories, but here we are.

Troy sighs, rubbing his temples. Britta and Jeff have been fighting all night, but they’re just drunk enough that nothing they’re saying is registering in his brain anymore. He’s been trying to engage, but nothing makes sense. It’s all forming mindless background noise. He looks over at the bar. Annie seems to be having a good time, laughing with the bartender, and down at the other end of the bar Abed’s talking to someone. A guy. He frowns, trying to get a good look at this man Abed’s talking to, but Britta gets up, blocking his view.

“I gotta go see a woman about the female equivalent of a horse.” Troy’s pretty sure Britta’s just saying gibberish at this point.

“Classy. Way to show Troy the ropes.” It's like high school all over again. Everyone keeps talking about stuff he doesn't understand and he just has to play along so no one laughs at him. 

“Shut up, L Street.”

Britta walks off and Jeff watches her go, mumbling something about hurricanes or something. Troy absentmindedly agrees, pretending to watch Britta. He misses Abed. I mean, what kind of person spends their best friend’s birthday hanging out with some other dude?

“Hurricanes are bad, Troy.” 

“I know,” He didn’t know.

Jeff starts rambling about whiskey or something, and Troy lets his eyes slide over to the bar again. Abed and the man are sitting facing each other. The man is watching Abed talk, his hand covering his mouth slightly. Troy knows that look. He’s given Abed that look. This guy is hitting on Abed!

A surge of jealousy flares up within Troy, and he tries to shove it back down, but he can’t. He studies Abed's face, looking for any sign that he’s reciprocating the feelings, but Abed’s in full infodump mode. It’s impossible to tell. 

“Jealous?” Jeff’s voice cuts through Troy’s thoughts. 

“What?” Troy wrenches his eyes away from Abed to look at Jeff, panicked. 

“Don’t like another man ogling your boyfriend?” Jeff snorts.

“Abed’s not...he’s...I...no...it’s…” Troy stutters, trying to explain himself, but Jeff isn’t listening. It was just a joke, an inconsequential comment. He won’t even remember having made it tomorrow.

But Troy will. 

“Guys! You have to come see this!” Britta stumbles out of the bathroom and rushes over to the table, grabbing Troy’s hand.

As Britta pulls him towards the women’s bathroom, he shoots another look towards the bar, just in time to see the man throw his drink into Abed’s face.

“Um, Britta?” Troy asks, tugging back on Britta’s hand.

“No, come on, you have to see this!” Britta pulls Troy harder, out of sight of the bar.

~~~

Before he’s even got a chance to have his first legal drink, Troy finds himself driving Jeff’s car, his friends piled into the back. He drops the girls off first and then Jeff, making sure to park as carefully as possible. Once he has Jeff safely in his condo, he heads back out. Someone had to walk home regardless and it’s a much shorter walk to the dorms from Jeff’s than to the mansion, so Abed had offered to let him stay the night. When he gets back outside, Abed is leaning gently against Jeff’s car, his head cocked to the side, his face inscrutable. 

“Ready?” Abed asks softly, watching Troy carefully.

Troy rubs a hand over his face and nods. Abed pushes up to standing and they start walking together. Abed isn’t nearly as drunk as everyone else, he’d only had one drink, and he was walking straight, his eyes clear and focused. 

“Abed?” Troy asks, glancing at him.

“Yes?” 

“Are you ok?”

Abed looks over at Troy curiously, “I’m fine, why?”

Troy shrugs, “I don’t know, you seem a little bummed, and I watched you get a drink thrown in your face earlier.” 

“Oh yeah, that wasn’t very fun,” Abed says matter-of-factly.

“Why did he do that?” 

“He asked me if I wanted to have sex with him and I said no.” 

“Wait, he got mad at you for not wanting to have sex with him?” Troy frowns, concern overriding his jealousy.    
  


“Yeah. It was a bit of an overreaction, but I had been leading him on.”

“Yeah?” Troy asks, trying desperately to seem disinterested.

Abed nods. “He was hitting on me, but I was just talking about Farscape. Although I didn’t realize immediately that that was what he was doing, and by the time I realized, it had already been a while, so I figured it was going to end badly either way, and I might as well take advantage of the situation. There aren’t a lot of people who will sit and listen to me talk for that long.”

“I would,” Troy says earnestly. 

“I know, but it’s your birthday. I didn’t want to bore you, and you said you wanted to learn from Jeff and Britta, so I thought it would be best to leave you guys alone.”

“Honestly, I was bored out of my mind.” Troy laughs.   
  


“Ah,” Abed smiles softly, “I’m sorry about that then.”

They walk together in silence for a second before Troy breaks it. “So…”

Abed looks over at him, tilting his head.

Troy fiddles anxiously with this hands, avoiding Abed’s intense gaze. “Why did you say no?”

“To the sex?”   
  


“Yeah.”

“I just wasn’t interested,” Abed shrugs. “He seemed nice, and maybe on another night I would have.”

Jealousy flares in Troy again. “Really?”

“Mmhmm,” Abed hums. He looks over at Troy, frowning slightly. “Why? Would that bother you?”

“A little.” Troy mumbles.

“But I thought we agreed that it was ok for us to have sex with other people.” Abed frowns, confused. 

“Yeah, I know. But this feels different.” 

“Why?” Abed asks.

“I don’t know, it just does,” Troy says sheepishly. 

“What about that girl I told you about last week? Did that bother you?”

“No, but—”

Abed pauses for a while and Troy could practically hear the gear whirring in his head. Abed looks up at Troy suddenly. “Because he’s a man? That’s why it’s different?” 

Troy can’t bring himself to look at Abed. “Isn’t it?”

“No,” Abed says flatly. “Not to me. Men, women, anything in between or outside that, they all mean the same to me.”

“Oh,” Troy whispers.

“Does that bother you?” Abed asks again, more gently this time. 

“I don’t know. I’m a little confused, I guess.” 

“Because when you’re with other people—”

“Women.” Troy corrects.

Abed nods, pressing his lips together. “When you’re with women it’s different? From when you’re with me? It’s different for you?”

“I don’t know,” Troy sighs. This time he did know. “Yeah, I guess.” He can’t lie to Abed. Friends don’t lie.

“Well, being with you is different to me too,” Abed says.

Troy looks up at Abed, eyes wide. “But you just said—”

“I said gender doesn’t matter to me,” Abed looks over at Troy, smiling slightly. “And it doesn’t, but what we have, it’s different.” Troy frowns, and Abed continues. “When I’m with other people, it’s nice, and I don’t want to discount it, but it’s just sex. It doesn’t go beyond that,” 

They arrive outside the dorms and Abed grabs Troy’s arm, turning him to face himself. “People usually talk about four different types of relationships and love: Familial, platonic, sexual, and romantic. And relationships can be more than one of them, but they can be categorized. I don’t know how to categorize this.” Abes slides the hand on Troy’s arm down to his hand, linking them.

“What do you mean?” Troy asks, his heart in his throat. 

“Well, I've never felt this way about anyone else. And maybe that shouldn't surprise me, because I never really had friends or anyone close to me before you. But I’ve seen a lot of movies about love, and I think this is special.” Troy feels his heart start racing, and Abed seems to pick up on it. He looks down at their linked hands. “I know sometimes this can be scary for you, especially when I say things like that, but I just want you to know that you don’t ever have to worry about there being anyone else. Because I don’t think I will ever feel the way I feel now about anyone else. And I’m never going to let this feeling go.”

Without a second thought, Troy grabs Abed’s flannel with his spare hand and pulls him into a deep kiss.

When he pulls back, Abed smiles down at Troy. “You didn’t look around.”

“What?” Troy laughs.

“You always check that no one’s looking before you kiss me,” Abed says, his small smile still on his face as if he can’t control it. “But you didn’t that time.”

He’s right. Troy smiles in spite of himself too. “Yeah, I guess I just didn’t care.”

“Come upstairs?” Abed asks, looking over at the dorms. 

Troy grins. “Yeah.” 


End file.
